1. Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure relates to a hydrogen generating device and a power generating equipment, and more particularly to a hydrogen generating device and a power generating equipment having a heating unit.
2. Description of Related Art
Fuel cell modules are power generating equipment in which chemical energy is used and directly transformed into electrical energy. Taking a proton exchanging membrane fuel cell as an example, the operating principle is that the hydrogen gas is subjected to an oxidation reaction at the anode catalyst layer, and hydrogen ions (H+) and electrons (e−) are generated, or methanol and water are subjected to an oxidation reaction at the anode catalyst layer, and hydrogen ions (H+), carbon dioxide (CO2) and electrons (e−) are generated, the hydrogen ions may be transported to the cathode through the proton conducting membrane, while the electrons can be transported to the cathode after the electrons flowing through an external circuit are applied to a load to work. Here, reduction reaction between the oxygen supplied to the cathode and the hydrogen ions and the electrons occurs at a cathode catalyst layer, and thereby water is produced. The fuel hydrogen gas needed by the anode may be obtained by solid NaBH4 generating hydrogen technology in which liquid water is added to solid NaBH4 to perform a chemical reaction for generating a hydrogen gas.
In general, the solid NaBH4 is placed in a reacting tank and the liquid water is guided into the reacting tank for reacting with the solid NaBH4 to generate a hydrogen gas. However, a slurry-shaped mixture is easy to be formed after the liquid water and the solid NaBH4 are mixed under the room temperature, it may cause the diffusion of the liquid water inferior, and the non-reacted solid NaBH4 cannot be quickly contacted with the liquid water, resulting an incomplete reaction. Therefore, in order to enhance the reacting rate of the liquid water and the solid NaBH4, a hydrophilic material is needed to be added into the reacting tank, or by way of channels design to guide more water flowing thereto, the water is guided into the reacting tank from a plurality of places, as such this way may increase the generating cost of the power generating equipment. In addition, the hydrophilic material may generally include ammonia, and the ammonia may cause the fuel cell stack rapidly failed, thus the filtering apparatus disposed between the fuel cell stack and the reacting tank has to effectively filter out the ammonia, and the load of filtering apparatus is increased. Moreover, since the diffusion of the liquid water is inferior and easy to cause some portion of the solid NaBH4 unable to react with the liquid water, in order to solve this problem, an amount of liquid water that is much more than required amount for actual reaction has to be provided. However, the too much amount of liquid water may increase the possibility of leakage of the power generating equipment, and the liquid water which remains in the reacting tank may gradually react with the remained solid NaBH4 and hydrogen gas may remain in the reacting tank, thus it may further affects the safety thereof. Furthermore, all of the hydrophilic material, guiding the water into the reacting tank from several places, and providing an amount of liquid water that is much more than a required amount for actual reaction may cause the whole structural volume and weight increased, the disposing space of the solid NaBH4 is restricted, as such, the energy density of power generating equipment may be substantially decreased.
The Chinese Patent Reference CN100396596C discloses a hydrogen generating device which uses capillary materials for guiding the fluid onto the solid hydride. The Chinese Patent Reference CN1319849C discloses a power generating device, wherein the water steam generated by the water steam generating device is provided to the hydrogen generating device to react and generate the hydrogen gas, the water steam generating device uses porous structures such as cotton fibers or polymeric fibers as a barrier so as to prevent the liquid leakage, and the water steam may enter and exit the water steam generating device through the porous structures.
The information disclosed in this “Description of Related Art” section is only for enhancement understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known to a person of ordinary skill in the art. Furthermore, the information disclosed in this “Description of Related Art” section does not mean that one or more problems to be solved by one or more embodiments of the invention was acknowledged by a person of ordinary skill in the art.